Sandy Murman

Commissioner Murman quoted in this 10News story on Soccer goal safety:

by Noah Pransky 10 News

TAMPA BAY, Florida – Months after a 10 News investigation called attention to often-ignored safety recommendations on soccer fields, tens of thousands of Tampa Bay-area kids are now safer.

City and county leaders are scrambling to anchor down heavy soccer goals that had been left precariously balanced and unsecured at nearly every field in Tampa Bay. It was a heavy steel goal that killed 18-year-old Corey Hawk in Lake Wales five years ago when it tumbled over.

According to goal manufacturers, 300- or 400-lb. goals are often left unanchored by field maintenance crews because anchors and/or sandbags make it harder to mow.

But just as fast as the initial report brought the issue to the attention of local leaders, many of them have stepped up with quick fixes for both the short- and long-terms.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman asked county staff to survey its fields. Of 106 soccer goals, only 12 were properly secured. 

“I was alarmed, completely alarmed,” Murman said. “We’re taking every step we can to make sure we’re going to have a permanent solution in place and that we’re following the guidelines.”

Hillsborough County Administrator Michael Merrill ordered sandbags immediately dropped on the goals after seeing the 10 News report and told leagues to present a long-term fix within two weeks. All had to utilize anchors, additional sandbags, or chains.

“(Leagues) were furnished a copy of a report entitled ‘Guidelines for Movable Soccer Goal Safety’ authored by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission,” Merrill wrote in an e-mail to commissioners. “The County Attorney’s Office was also consulted regarding our levels of liability, and they provided assistance with wording for additional notification to leagues.”

The city of Tampa wasted no time either and bought permanent anchors for all of their goals.

“We wouldn’t have known about it had you not done the story, so we’re glad you brought it to our attention.” says Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn. “Clearly, there was potential liability. Clearly, a young man lost his life unnecessarily. I don’t want that to happen in my city.”

Permanent anchors were installed at numerous fields less than a week later.

In Polk County, where Hawk died in 2007, the presidents of all the local soccer clubs met to discuss the 10 News story and goal safety. Fighting the frustrating battle for years, they say they need more help from everyone when it comes to securing goals.

“Safety is not just the league’s responsibility, safety is every single person’s responsibility,” says Lake Wales Soccer Club President Robbie Shields.

Sheilds sent an e-mail ultimatum to coaches that he’ll pull the team off the field if they are practicing near unsecured goals.

Pinellas County commissioners and St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster also took immediate action, encouraging their staffs to draw up language mandating local leagues lock down their goals.

However, in Pasco County, a month after 10 News first brought the problem to commissioners, only some of the county’s goals had been unanchored down on county fields. Many were tied down to fences, but several goals on several different fields remained unsecured.

Jack Mitchell Park had five heavy nets with too few sandbags to meet more anchoring guidelines. There were five other nets with no anchoring whatsoever. At John Testa Field, four large goals had no anchoring at all.

Commissioners repeatedly referred questions to Pasco County Parks and Recreation Director Rick Buckman, who said via email that leagues were told to take care of the problem.

“All the co-sponsored soccer league leaders…have been instructed to look at this issue and secure the goals in some fashion (stakes, sand bags, or chains) when in use or available for public use,” Buckman wrote. “If there are issues, the volunteer leadership of the program involved is to be contacted by the park supervisor or an operations manager.

“It is difficult to monitor use when staff is not available and the co-sponsored youth sports organizations are not on site. We will continue to communicate with the co-sponsored youth sports leadership on this issue to help ensure user safety.”

While three states have recently passed laws to mandate goals be secured at all times, Florida is not one of them. But the problem of unanchored goals has been around for decades.

In 1995, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published a report about the dangers of goals on 500,000 fields across the county. It puts the responsibility of goal safety on park personnel, parents, school officials, sports equipment purchasers, and coaches.

Goal manufacturer KwikGoal states on its website that goals are to be anchored at all times. The warning has also appeared on goalposts, catalog pages, assembly instructions, and other marketing materials for more than two decades.

Both the US Youth Soccer Association and the Florida Youth Soccer Association stress safety on their websites, reminding coaches and referees to inspect “before every practice, training activity, and game” all goals for safety.

The CPSC believed its 1995 guidelines could help prevent deaths and serious injuries resulting from soccer goal tip-overs in the United States. In the 16 years since, there have been 16 goal-related deaths and at least 30 serious injuries.

Find 10 News Investigator Noah Pransky on Facebook or follow his updates on Twitter. Send your story tips to noah@wtsp.com.

Commissioner Murman mentioned and quoted in this Times article:

By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, February 23, 2012

TAMPA — It was supposed to be a day in which they celebrated their newfound collegiality.
But it ended in a fracas, with commissioners accusing each other of trickery, grandstanding and campaigning from the dais.

It started with a discussion about commissioner paychecks.

Commissioner Kevin Beckner proposed that board members make a symbolic gesture: Pledge to cut their own pay if county employees are ever asked again to take a pay hit. But after making his case several times, he failed to muster a second.

Commissioners earn about $92,000 a year. The chair earns an additional $10,000 stipend.

Commissioner Sandra Murman offered a separate proposal to let commissioners cut their salaries if they so choose, which a recent state law and the county’s charter already allow. Chairman Ken Hagan seconded that idea.
The acrimony began when Commissioner Al Higginbotham, who had been on a bathroom break, returned to say he would support Beckner’s original proposal. But Hagan and Commissioner Les Miller had the board’s parliamentarian confirm that, underRobert’s Rules of Order, neither Beckner nor Higginbotham could put forward the original motion since it had already died.

“Parliamentary trickery at its finest,” Beckner said.

“It’s not parliamentary trickery,” Miller shot back. “It’s following the rules.”

The two proceeded to talk over each other for a few tense moments, with Miller saying Beckner was trying to throw the rest of the commission under the bus to score political points.

Hagan, until that exchange, had made the case that commissioners have already shown leadership on the issue in the past. When Higginbotham floated a proposal three years ago for commissioners to accept a pay cut, Hagan noted that he came up with the idea to reduce board members’ auto allowance and accept other cutbacks instead.
As the Miller-Beckner melee wound down, Hagan boiled over.

“Please stop the campaign rhetoric,” he told Beckner.

In the preceding back and forth, Murman announced that she will soon volunteer to take a pay cut. After the meeting, she said it will be at least 3 percent, and she will ask that the money be directed to an initiative for the homeless she will pursue soon.

“I think a real leader is me saying I’m going to voluntarily take a reduction,” Murman said.

Reached later, Beckner accused Hagan of hijacking Higginbotham’s pay cut proposal from four years ago. And while he complimented Murman on her gesture, he said it was grandstanding to announce it at the meeting. Grandstanding is precisely what other board members say Beckner was doing.

Earlier in the day, commissioners spent several moments applauding an agreement reached by staff to jointly purchase $34.2 million worth of budget, finance and human resources software with the city of Tampa. They held the deal and unanimous vote up as symbolizing the new attitude at the county, one in which teamwork is emphasized over infighting.

Beckner’s proposal came at the end of the meeting. The vote was followed by the commission’s afternoon public comment period, which drew one speaker.

It was Largo resident Mark Klutho, an activist who regularly blasts commissioners on their failure to build and operate energy efficient buildings.

“You people are nothing but hot air,” he said. “You just repeat yourselves over and over and over again.”

In other action:
• A screening committee is recommending that commissioners hire a private sector auditor for the county’s vacant internal performance auditor position. Commissioners said they want to interview Kambam Reddi, director of enterprise policy at Rockwell Collins, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, company that provides aviation and information technology systems to governments and aircraft manufacturers.

• Agreed to schedule a public hearing on a proposed new noise ordinance.

Bill Varian can be reached at (813) 226-3387 or varian@tampabay.com.

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tribune article:

By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune
Published: February 22, 2012

TAMPA —

Charges of parliamentary trickery and partisan grandstanding enlivened a largely meaningless debate about county commissioners’ pay at the tail end of Wednesday’s Hillsborough County Commission meeting.

With all other business taken care of and the clock ticking toward 5 p.m., Commissioner Kevin Beckner revived his call for commissioners to accept any pay cuts they impose on county workers in the future.

Beckner had tried to get commissioners to make such a vow Jan. 19, but he was outmaneuvered by commission Chairman Ken Hagan, who put forth substitute language to make commission pay cuts voluntary.

On Wednesday, Hagan’s motion came forward for a final vote on the consent agenda, a long list of items that commissioners usually vote on in a block with no discussion.

But Beckner pulled the item off the consent agenda and reiterated his claim that Hagan’s language was “meaningless” because the Legislature passed a law last year allowing commissioners to voluntarily reduce their pay.

“It’s basically rehashing what’s already in force and again it kind of negates the whole idea,” Beckner said.
Beckner made a motion to add language saying commissioners would accept any pay cuts County Administrator Mike Merrill recommends for employees.

Merrill has already said he won’t recommend any pay cuts in next year’s budget. In fact, he said he is considering a one-time salary increase.

Beckner’s motion was not seconded immediately and other commissioners queued up to speak on the matter. Sandy Murman said she would voluntarily cut her pay.

Hagan, repeating almost verbatim points he made last month, said commissioners had already shown leadership by reducing their car allowance in 2007 and reducing their pay in 2009. Collectively, the reductions amounted to about $4,500 a year.

“No other government has sent a clearer picture to their employees than Hillsborough County,” Hagan said . He then proceeded to read a list of surrounding counties that had not reduced their pay since 2006.

Murman then made a substitute motion to leave policy as it is, with commissioners allowed to voluntarily reduce their pay. Hagan seconded the substitute motion.

But Commissioner Les Miller pointed out that no one seconded Beckner’s original motion so there could be no substitute. Hagan quickly said Murman’s substitute motion was really a new motion.

That prompted rounds of parliamentary discussion, substitute motions and bickering among commissioners.
In the end, commissioners voted 5-2 to support Murman’s motion, which left everything the same as it was before the nearly 30-minute debate. Beckner and Higginbotham voted no.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Times article on homelessness:

By Richard Danielson, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, January 27, 2012

TAMPA — A group of heavy-hitting Tampa business executives and local officials is exploring a new strategy to alleviate the problem of chronic homelessness in Hillsborough County.

Known as a “housing-first” approach, the idea is to provide a network of support services and supportive housing to chronically homeless people, an estimated 7,000 of whom live in Hillsborough.

“Most of them need help, and we’ve got a lot of services out there, but nothing coordinated to really do a comprehensive program, and that’s what we’re headed for,” said County Commissioner Sandra Murman, who is involved in the public-private group working on the program.

The group also includes Hillsborough School Board chairwoman Candy Olson, Tampa Bay Lightning chief executive officer Tod Leiweke, M.E. Wilson Company president Guy King, Tampa Tank chief executive officer Calvin Reed and Rayme Nuckles, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.

Leiweke in particular brings relevant experience to the effort. In Seattle, where he was CEO of the Seattle Seahawks, he led a 2008-09 United Way campaign that raised more than $100 million to help fight family homelessness.

In other cities with housing-first programs, the combination of housing and coordinated social services helps homeless people stabilize their lives and apply for jobs, veterans benefits or other assistance while staying physically and mentally healthy.

That, in turn, helps prevent them from relapsing into substance abuse, mental illness or other problems that send them to jail or the emergency room.

“You cannot fix homelessness and you cannot get people back on their feet unless they have a roof over their heads,” said Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who met two weeks ago with King and the president of a nonprofit program that uses this model in Santa Monica, Calif. “Whatever investment you make on the front end of this problem saves you on the back end.”

While the group has visited cities with similar programs, “we’re still in the conceptual phase,” Murman said.

Buckhorn said he understands that the group is not at this point looking at real estate.

Anything launched as a result of the group’s work will have to be methodical, will not be a quick fix and will require the private sector to be “a player in this in a big way,” the mayor said. He also expects groups such as Metropolitan Ministries, Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army to be involved. And he expects “we’ll start out relatively modestly.”

Leiweke, King, Reed and Nuckles could not be reached Thursday, but the group’s effort came up for a brief discussion during a Tampa City Council workshop on city efforts to help homeless people.

After passing a six-day-per-week ban on many forms of roadside solicitation last fall, council members asked Buckhorn’s administration for a list of city properties that might be used for homeless services.

In September, the council endorsed the idea of creating a shelter and assessment facility modeled on Pinellas County’s Safe Harbor shelter, which provides social services and mental and physical health care.

Thomas Snelling, the city’s acting growth management and development services director, told council members Thursday that officials have looked, but the city does not have a centrally located property that’s big enough, available and suitable for such a facility.

Council members were incredulous.

“A joke,” said council member Frank Reddick.

“I feel like the message that we’re getting is basically, you’ve got nothing,” Council member Mary Mulhern told Snelling.

While Snelling gave council members a summary of the public-private group’s discussion, council members still want to pursue something similar to Safe Harbor. The Pinellas shelter was created inside a former bus building and is managed by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. It also receives support from St. Petersburg, smaller Pinellas cities, county government and nonprofit groups.

Advocates of a similar facility here have explored the idea of converting vacant bunks at the Orient Road Jail, but Sheriff David Gee has said that’s not feasible.

If the city’s staff does not have ideas to offer, council member Harry Cohen said council members should. He said it’s worth looking at the Hillsborough Correctional Women’s Prison in Riverview, which the state may shutter.

Buckhorn said later he agreed.

“I thought about that when I read that news,” he said. “That may be an option that’s worth pursuing. I’d be open to looking at it.”

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tribune Editorial regarding gas pumping assistance for disabled drivers:

By TBO.COM | Tbo.com
Published: January 23, 2012 Updated: January 23, 2012 – 12:00 AM

It may seem a small thing, but a Hillsborough County ordinance that helps disabled drivers gas up their vehicle illustrates how citizens, elected officials and businesses can work together to quickly address a community need.

A trip to a gas station can be a dangerous challenge to the disabled, who may have to negotiate around cars and gas pumps in a wheelchair.

As the Tribune’s Howard Altman reports, Ben Ritter, government relations director for the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, came up with a smart solution: Put placards at gas stations with a store phone number disabled drivers can call for assistance. The placards have the wheelchair symbol found on handicap parking stickers.

As Ritter points out, most everyone has cellphones these days. There was no need for a costly program.

County Commissioner Sandy Murman pushed the effort, and the industry embraced the ordinance, which enables anyone with a permanent handicap sticker to request aid.

The ordinance includes no penalty. As Murman says, if compliance problems occur, the county can always revisit the issue.

Now a trip to the gas station shouldn’t be daunting for disabled drivers. Yet this was done with only the lightest government touch. Word is Broward County is following Hillsborough’s example. All this happened because government officials paid attention to a citizen’s sensible idea about a public problem.

Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners Meeting; 1/19/2012.

Commissioner Murman presents a commendation, on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners, recognizing the University of Tampa’s 80th Anniversary and the University’s contribution to Hillsborough County. Accepting the commendation is Dr. Ronald L. Vaughn, president of University of Tampa.

“Commissioner Sandy Murman honors Walter Lamerton, Jr. for his work to bring a USO Club to Tampa Airport, at a recent meeting of the Hillsborough BOCC.”

Thank you.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Times article on Bayshore repaving:

By Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer
Jodie TillmanTampa Bay Times Posted: Jan 19, 2012 12:14 PM

TAMPA –

Bayshore Boulevard could get a quick facelift in time for the Republican National Convention.

Hillsborough County commissioners told county staff Thursday to come back with a report outlining how much it would cost to repave and spruce up parts of Bayshore. No one said what price would be a deal breaker for the idea.

The decision comes a couple of weeks after Tampa City Council member Harry Cohen publicly complained that the road — likely to be a backdrop setting in national news coverage — isn’t ready for its close-up.

Bayshore is a county-maintained road in the city limits. Hillsborough County gives money to Tampa for routine items, such as filling potholes, but is responsible for major capital projects. Currently, Bayshore’s next repaving project isn’t scheduled until 2014.

County Commissioner Sandy Murman brought up the issue.

“It’s an iconic street adjacent to where the convention is being held,” said Murman. “I guess I’m concerned that the asset we own is not going to have its best foot forward.”

The vote to investigate the cost was 5-1, with Commissioner Les Miller dissenting. Miller said he didn’t think it was fair to prioritize Bayshore over other roads.

“I’m not in favor of moving up one street … and neglecting those ahead of it,” he said.

The other commissioners supported a later request by Miller to ask the staff look at other county roads and determine if any of them also needed to be moved up the list.